Meet UISS-TB, a simulation framework to model the interaction between the immune system, the bacteria causing tuberculosis, and a vaccine
The immune system is complex and fascinating, a dance of hundreds of different molecules and cells which protect us from viruses, bacteria, parasites, cancer, and much more. Creating a computational model of the immune system is a challenging job, but soon, we can significantly benefit from new technologies coming into practice.
Everything starts with UISS, the Universal Immune System Simulator, a simulation framework to model the immune system integrating different resources and capable of reproducing the general immune system behaviour connected to both immune system responses to viruses, bacteria, and more, but also to induced system responses, such as vaccines. Based on UISS, different resources were built within the EC-based project In Silico World, such as:
UISS-COVID19: To predict the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 and immune system competition within the host;
UISS-MC: To simulate the effects of tumour-preventive vaccines against mammary carcinoma;
UISS-MS: To predict specific treatments in patients affected by relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis;
UISS-TB: To model the human immune system response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Mimesis, a startup and spin-off of the University of Catania, further elaborated this last solution. The tool developed by the startup, based on UISS-TB, recently received positive qualification advice and a letter of support from the European Medicine Agency (EMA).
In the letter, the EMA expresses support for the application of model-informed drug development approaches by employing the mechanistic agent-based model UISS-TB DR for dose selection of vaccines against tuberculosis. Moreover, the EMA provided recommendations and guidelines, encouraging the startup to expand the approach to other types of therapeutic vaccines and emphasising the importance of collecting additional data.
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